| المستخلص: |
The issue of managing internal conflicts in West Africa has been one of the central issues since at least the early 1990s, based on its direct effects on the legal reality of the nation state and the path of economic development. That case, in turn, affects the regional peace and security system in the region, therefore, the issue of conflict management came at the top of the regional priorities of ECOWAS, given that it is the main regional community in West Africa, among the eight regional economic communities recognized by the African Union. It was established under the treaty establishing them in (Lagos) on May 28th, 1975. The treaty was revised with the beginning of 1990s, and the new treaty was issued in (Cotonou) on July 24 1993, which added a focus on issues with political and security implications, in addition to the original issues with economic implications. Consequently, the analytical perspective of this study is based on approaching the reality related to the ECOWAS response to the issue of internal conflict management in West Africa, by focusing on three main axes. The first is the mechanisms concerned with conflict management within the framework of ECOWAS, represented in the treaty amending the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Protocol relating to the Mechanism for Preventing, Managing and Resolving conflicts, maintaining peace and security, and the Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance, while the second lies on applied models for ECOWAS’s role in Conflict management in West African countries, where nine main models were addressed (Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea- Bissau, Côte d›Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Niger, Mali, Gambia and Guinea Conakry). ECOWAS›s role in this context has mainly been based on adopting a set of measures that range from leading diplomatic mediation efforts, sending military forces, and imposing sanctions to establish regional peace and security. The third axis of this study is based on providing an evaluation vision for the role of ECOWAS in managing conflicts in West Africa, which indicated that ECOWAS succeeded in transforming from an economic entity to an economic, political and security union since the beginning of the nineties of the twentieth century, by carrying out the tasks and functions of stabilizing in West Africa and Conflict Management, and proved that regional economic Communities can play a prominent role in the implementation of the road map for the African Peace and Security Structure (20162020-). It also raised some challenges facing ECOWAS’s work in this framework, which ranged from financial, operational and institutional challenges. Finally, the study concluded by presenting a future vision on the proposed ways to enhance the role of ECOWAS in the field of conflict management, including the availability of the real political will of member states to activate conflict management mechanisms, strengthening intra coordination and cooperation for member states to face common security challenges, and strengthening the self-financial resources needed to finance the activities of the Conflict management mechanisms in West Africa.
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